Labor Day is less then a month away which signals the start of the fall season. It’s not unusual to need a little heat late August/early September. Time to take a serious look at your present heating system and decide if you intend to upgrade this tear or stay with what you have.
If you decide to stay with what you have, faithfully did your spring maintenance and have a pellet stove it’s time to fuel up. We just received our summer load of wood pellets and just finished the letter offering them to our customers at special summer pricing. We usually mail the offer middle of July but usually have people calling us early July to know when they’ll receive the letter in the mail. These people are way “ahead of the curve”. If you have a wood stove I would assume you are all “fueled up” – or – if you aren’t that you will cut or purchase a supply of seasoned fire wood and store it under a roof or cover it with a tarp. Too late to cut/buy unseasoned firewood now unless it’s for 2019/2020. If your fuel is coal, oil, gas or electric, no need to buy now as all are readily available, unless your coal/oil/gas supplier offers you a good price for buying early and you have the funds to take advantage of it.
If you intend to upgrade you heating system it’s time to make your purchase before the rush begins. There are lots of choices out there depending on what you want to budget for the project, how automatic you want the system to be, what comfort level your looking for and how much your willing to pay in operating cost. It can be as simple as installing a modern wood/coal/pellet stove – or – as complex as installing a whole house heat pump heating/cooling system with gas or electric backup.
My favorite system for the customer that wants a simple economical heating appliance that will save lots of heating cost money and is easy to operate is a Hanover I, Cast Iron, Hopper Feed, Saey Coal Stove and Selkirk Insulated Stainless Steel Chimney ($5000 + or – installed). If you have a good inside chimney or a good outside lined chimney, the Selkirk Chimney wouldn’t be needed. In addition this 60,000 btu’hr heating appliance is non electric (good emergency backup), will burn 12 to 16 hours unattended uses about 3 tons of coal per heating season ($250/ton delivered x 3 tons = $750/year).
My favorite system for a customer that wants maximum comfort and efficiency in a Whole House Ducted Central Heating/Cooling System is a Trane Two Stage Heat Pump backed up by a Trane Variable Speed Gas Furnace (95% efficiency, Natural Gas or Propane) controlled by a Trane Wi-Fi Enabled Digital Thermostat (system cost installed $20,000 + or – ). There’s a supply register in each room, central humidification in the winter, central dehumidification assistance in the summer and central filtration. Supply Air to the room registers is heated by the Electric Heat Pump to 95 + or – degrees and is most efficient and comfortable when the outside temperature is in the 70 to 40 degree range. Below 40 degrees Supply Air is heated by the high efficiency Gas Furnace to140 degree which provides a warmer, more comfortable heat when it’s cold outside.
If you decide to upgrade it’s time to talk to us or your favorite HVAC professional.
Curt Bierly is president of the bierly group incorporated of which Stanley C. Bierly is a division. He graduated from Penn State with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and is the chair for the Penn College HVAC Advisory Board. You can contact him at cbierly@bierlygroup.com or call him at 814-349-3000.